The FCC has sent another reminder to licensees of analog low power television stations regarding the July 13 drop-dead date. If an analog LPTV has not applied for a digital CP by that date its license will be cancelled and those that have Construction Permit’s but will not be ready to broadcast digitally will need to file a waiver request but still will be required to turn off their analog signal on the 13th and cease operation until ready to begin operating with their digital facilities.
This will of course affect the thirty something LPTV’s on analog channel 6 operating as radio stations on 87.75 MHz. While some of these signals will be moving to other channels, many will be remaining on channel 6 and have spent the past few years seeking loopholes to continue to broadcast an analog audio signal past the digital conversion deadline. Venture Technologies Group, which owns five affected stations, threw the door wide open this week with the grant of a six month STA for its KBKF-LD San Jose CA. KBKF-LD, which is leased to Educational Media Foundation to air its “Air 1” network, will be permitted to continue to offer an analog audio signal on 87.75 FM in its ATSC 3.0 digital video signal. The station will be required to operate with the following conditions:
- The analog operations may only be conducted on 87.5 MHz.
- The STA may be immediately modified or terminated if it causes interference to any other FCC licensed entity or if Venture fails to comply with any conditions of the grant. The FCC’s video division also may modify or terminate the authorization for any rason upon written notice to Venture.
- KBKF-LD’s audio and video coverage must reach similar populations.
- Venture has to submit written reports in 90 days and again 180 days later detailing any interference to other licenses or between its own video and audio services that limits the coverage of its video. The reports must include a demonstration that KBKF-LD’s audio and video coverage reach similar populations.
- During the term of the STA, KBKF-LD must provide at least on stream of synchronized video and audio programming on the ATSC 3.0 portion of the spectrum on a full time basis.
- During the term of the STA, the technical facilities of KBKF-LD may not be modified.
- During the term of the STA, the license of the station may not be assigned or transferred.
In response to the grant, Venture Technologies Group CEO Paul Koplin told RobertFeder.com in response to how it will affect their WRME-LP Chicago, “We still need to make this a permanent solution. But in the meantime, MeTV FM will live and thrive, and we are lucky to have someone like Neal Sabin [vice chairman of Weigel Broadcasting and creator of MeTV FM] entertain us.” Venture leases WRME-LP to Weigel Broadcasting as Soft Oldies “87.7 MeTV-FM“.
However, it is still unknown if the FCC will grant these STA’s to any other LPTV operators between now and the July 13 deadline or if KBKF-LD will be looked upon as a test case.
Another STA application may help bring a New York AM back to life. Family Stations suspended operations of Christian Preaching 1560 WFME New York in February after selling the station’s five acre tower site logistics real estate operator Prologis in November 2020 for $51 million.
Now WFME seeks to operate via STA with 10kW from the West Orange NJ tower utilized by 91.1 WFME East Orange and 94.7 WNSH Newark NJ (the latter the former home of the WFME call letters and format) owned by Family Stations. The applications states that a slant wire feed extending to an intermediate level of the grounded 203 foot tapered self-supporting tower which also supports the pole mounted FM antenna for the FM stations is proposed. The base of this wire will be terminated on the roof of the adjacent equipment building and the matching network installed in an antenna tuning unit at this location. The installation will have minimal ground system, and this has been taken into account in the efficiency analysis.
Range Paging Inc’s 103.9 K280AT Ely MN and Soli Deo Gloria FM’s 101.1 K266AK Aspen CO have each been fined $1500 for failing to file a timely license renewal.
Deletions
Wennes Communications Stations has surrendered the license of 1160 KMRV Waukon IA.
